's
successor
and king of Sweden.
Beowulf
l. 2233. Z. surmises eorð-hūse (for -scræfe).
l. 2241. B. proposes lǣn-gestrēona, = _transitory_, etc. ; Th. , R. propose
leng (= _longer_) gestrēona; S. accepts the text but translates "the long
accumulating treasure. "
l. 2246. B. proposed (1) hard-fyndne, = _hard to find_; (2) hord-wynne
dǣl,--_a deal of treasure-joy_ (cf. l. 2271). --_Zachers Zeitschr. _ iv. 211;
_Beit. _ xii. 102.
l. 2247. fecword = _banning words_ (? ) MS. has fec.
l. 2254. Others read feor-[mie], = _furbish_, for fetige: _I own not one
who may_, etc.
l. 2261. The Danes themselves were sometimes called the "Ring-Danes," =
clad in ringed (or a ring of) armor, or possessing rings. Cf. ll. 116,
1280.
l. 2263. Koeppel suggests nis for næs.
The editors are much indebted to E. Koeppel (in _Eng. Stud. _ xiii. 3) for
numerous corrections in text and glossary.
l. 2264. Note the early reference to hawking. Minstrelsy (hearpan wyn),
saga-telling, racing, swimming, harpooning of sea-animals, feasting, and
the bestowal of jewels, swords, and rings, are the other amusements most
frequent in _Bēowulf_.
l. 2264. Cf. _Maldon_, ll. 8, 9, for a reference to hawking.
l. 2276. Z. suggests swȳðe ondrǣdað; Ho. puts gesēcean for Gr. 's gewunian.
l. 2277. Z. and K. read: hord on hrūsan. "Three hundred winters," at l.
2279, is probably conventional for "a long time," like hund missēra, l.
1499; hund þūsenda, l. 2995; þrītig (of Beowulf's strength), l. 379; þrītig
(of the men slain by Grendel), l. 123; seofan þūsendo, l. 2196, etc.
l. 2285. B. objects to hord as repeated in ll. 2284, 2285; but cf. Ha. , p.
77. C. prefers sum to hord. onboren = _inminutus_; cf. B. , _Beit. _ xii.
102.
l. 2285. onberan is found also at line 991, = _carry off_, with on- = E.
_un--(un-bind, -loose, -tie_, etc. ), G. _ent-_. The negro still pronounces
_on-do_, etc.
l. 2299. Cf. H. -So. , p. 112, for a defense of the text as it stands. B.
proposes "nor was there any man in that desert who rejoiced in conflict,"
etc. So ten Br.
l. 2326. B. and ten Br,. propose hām, = _home_, for him. --_Beit. _ xii. 103.
l. 2335. E. translates ēalond utan by _the sea-board front, the
water-washed land on the (its) outside_. See B. , _Beit. _ xii. 1, 5.
l. 2346. Cf. l. 425, where Beowulf resolves to fight the dragon
single-handed. E. compares _Guy of Warwick_, ll. 49, 376.
l. 2355. Ten Br. proposes laðan cynne as apposition to mǣgum.
l. 2360. Cf. Beowulf's other swimming-feat with Breca, ll. 506 _seq. _
l. 2362. Gr. inserts āna, = _lone-going_, before xxx. : approved by B. ; and
Krüger, _Beit. _ ix. 575. Cf. l. 379.
l. 2362. "Beowulf has the strength of thirty men in the original tale.
Here, then, the new inventor makes him carry off thirty coats of
mail. "--Br. , p. 48.
l. 2364. Hetware = Chattuarii, a nation allied against Hygelāc in his
Frisian expedition; cf. ll. 1208 _seq. _, 2917, etc.
l. 2368. B. proposes _quiet sea_ as trans, of sioleða bigong, and compares
Goth. _anasilan_, to be still; Swed. dial, _sil_, still water between
waterfalls. --_Zachers Zeitschr. _ iv. 214.
l. 2380. hyne--Heardrēd; so him, l. 2358.
l. 2384. E. calls attention to Swīo-rīce as identical with the modern
_Sverige_ = Sweden; cf. l. 2496.
l. 2386. Gr. reads on feorme, = _at the banquet_; cf. Möller, _Alteng.
Volksepos_, 111, who reads (f)or feorme. The MS. has or.
l. 2391. Cf. l. 11.
l. 2394. B. , Gr. , and Mūllenh. understand ll. 2393-2397 to mean that
Ēadgils, Ōhthere's son, driven from Sweden, returns later, supported by
Beowulf, takes the life of his uncle Onela, and probably becomes himself
O.
's successor and king of Sweden. For another view see H. -So. , p. 115. MS.
has freond (l. 2394), which Leo, etc. , change to fēond. G. translates
_friend_. --_Beit. _ xii. 13; _Anzeiger f. d. Altert. _ iii. 177.
l. 2395. Ēadgils is Ōhthere's son; cf. l. 2381; Onela is Ōhthere's brother;
cf. ll. 2933, 2617.
l. 2402. "Twelfsome"; cf. "fifteensome" at l. 207, etc. As _Bēowulf_ is
essentially _the_ Epic of Philanthropy, of the true love of man, as
distinguished from the ordinary love-epic, the number twelve in this
passage may be reminiscent of another Friend of Man and another Twelve. In
each case all but one desert the hero.
l. 2437. R. proposes stȳred, = _ordered, decreed_, for strēd. --_Zachers
Zeitschr. _ iii. 409.
l. 2439. B. corrects to frēo-wine = _noble friend_, asking, "How can
Herebeald be called Hæðcyn's frēa-wine [MS. ], _lord? _"
l. 2442. feohlēas gefeoht, "a homicide which cannot be atoned for by
money--in this case an unintentional fratricide. "--Sw.
l. 2445. See Ha. , pp. 82, 83, for a discussion of ll. 2445-2463. Cf. G. , p.
75.
l. 2447. MS. reads wrece, justified by B. (_Tidskr. _ viii. 56). W.
conceives wrece as optative or hortative, and places a colon before þonne.
l. 2449. For helpan read helpe. --K. , Th. , S. (_Zeitschr. f. D. Phil. _ xxi.
3, 357).
ll. 2454-2455. (1) Müllenh. (_Haupts Zeitschr. _ xiv. 232) proposes:
þonne se ān hafað
þurh dǣda nȳd dēaðes gefandod.
(2) B. proposes:
þurh dǣda nīð dēaðes gefondad.
--_Zachers Zeitschr. _ iv. 215.
l. 2458. Cf. scēotend, pl. , ll. 704, 1155, like rīdend. Cf. _Judith_, l.
305, etc.
l. 2474. Th. considers the "wide water" here as the Mälar lake, the
boundary between Swedes and Goths.
l. 2477. On oþþe = _and_, cf. B. , _Tidskr. _ viii. 57. See Ha. , p. 83.
l. 2489. B. proposes hrēa-blāc for Gr. 's heoro-. --_Tikskr. _ viii. 297.
l. 2494. S. suggests ēðel-wynne.
l. 2502. E. translates for dugeðum, _of my prowess_; so Ettmüller.
ll. 2520-2522. Gr. and S. translate, "if I knew how else I might combat the
monster's boastfulness. "--Ha. , p. 85.
l. 2524. and-hāttres is H. 's invention. Gr. reads oreðes and attres, _blast
and venom_. Cf. oruð, l. 2558, and l. 2840 (where attor- also occurs).
l. 2526. E. quotes flēon fōtes trym from _Maldon_, l. 247.
l. 2546. Gr. , H. -So. , and Ho. read standan stān-bogan (for stōd on
stān-bogan) depending on geseah.
l. 2550. Grundt. and B. propose dēor, _brave one_, i. e. Beowulf, for dēop.
L. 2565. MS. has ungleaw (K. , Th. ), unglaw (Grundt. ). B. proposes unslāw, =
_sharp_. --_Beit. _ xii. 104. So H. -So. , Ha. , p. 86.
ll. 2570, 2571. (1) May not gescīfe (MS. to gscipe) = German _schief_,
"crooked," "bent," "aslant," and hence be a parallel to gebogen, _bent,
coiled? _ cf. l. 2568, þā se wyrm gebēah snūde tōsomne, and l. 2828. Coiled
serpents spring more powerfully for the coiling. (2) Or perhaps destroy
comma after tō and read gescæpe, = _his fate_; cf. l. 26: him þā Scyld
gewāt tō gescæp-hwīle. G. appar. adopts this reading, p. 78.
l. 2589.
